Estimated read time: 8 minutes

Overview

Every workflow in AskElephant runs on an AI model—the engine that powers your analysis, generates insights, and produces results. Different models have different strengths. Some are built for speed. Others excel at handling massive amounts of information. Some specialize in deep reasoning.

Picking the right model means getting better results faster. The good news: you don't need to intricately understand how AI works to make a smart choice. This guide walks you through when to use each model.

Key Terms

AI Model: The underlying technology that processes your instructions and information. Think of it as a specialized tool with particular strengths—like choosing between a hammer and a screwdriver for different jobs.

Context Window: The amount of information an AI model can process at once. A larger context window means the model can handle more meetings, documents, or data in a single analysis.

Token: The basic unit of information that AI processes. For practical purposes, one token is roughly one word. A model's token limit tells you how much information it can handle.

Inference: The process of the AI model analyzing your information and producing results.

Start Here: The Recommended Default

Claude 4.5 Haiku is your starting point for most workflows.

This model strikes the best balance:

• Handles writing, analysis, and creative thinking equally well
• Fast enough for real-time workflows
• Processes up to 200,000 tokens (roughly 150,000 words)
• Reliable across a wide range of tasks

Processing capacity: Approximately 20-30 hours of meeting recordings, or 150-200 individual meeting transcripts.

When to use it: Meeting summaries, coaching analysis, CRM updates, customer insights, most general-purpose tasks.

If you're unsure which model to choose, Claude 4.5 Haiku is the answer. It won't be the fastest for every task, but it delivers solid results consistently.

For Speed: Gemini 2.5 Flash & Claude 4.5 Haiku

Choose these when you need quick results without sacrificing quality.

Gemini 2.5 Flash is particularly strong when:

• You're looping through many meetings and pulling quick insights from each
• You need lightweight, snappy answers
• You're building workflows that run frequently
• Speed is your priority

Processing capacity: Approximately 20-30 hours of meeting recordings, or 150-200 individual meeting transcripts.

Best for: Loop prompts that process 10+ meetings, real-time workflow notifications, lightweight analysis.

For General Excellence: Claude 4.5 Sonnet

This model is the Swiss Army knife. It handles everything well.

Use Claude 4.5 Sonnet when:

• You need the highest-quality analysis on complex topics
• You're building mission-critical workflows (like sales handoffs or customer health assessments)
• You're combining multiple data sources and need nuanced synthesis
• Quality is more important than speed

Token limit: 200,000 tokens

Processing capacity: Approximately 20-30 hours of meeting recordings, or 150-200 individual meeting transcripts.

Best for: Complex coaching analysis, comprehensive customer summaries, detailed strategic recommendations, multi-source data synthesis.

For Analysis & Numbers: GPT-4.1

This model specializes in analytical thinking and coding.

Use GPT-4.1 when:

• You're extracting pricing information or financial details
• You need precise calculations or data interpretation
• You're building workflows that analyze technical details
• You're working with structured data that needs careful parsing

Token limit: 128,000 tokens

Processing capacity: Approximately 13-19 hours of meeting recordings, or 100-120 individual meeting transcripts.

Best for: Deal analysis, technical documentation review, financial summaries, precise data extraction.

For Deep Reasoning: Claude 4.5 Sonnet, GPT-o3, or Grok 4

These models are built to think through complex problems step-by-step.

GPT-o3 and Grok 4 excel when:

• You need the model to work through multi-step reasoning
• The problem is genuinely complex (not just long)
• You're analyzing nuanced customer situations or strategic scenarios
• The extra analysis time is worth the deeper insights

Trade-off: These models are slower than standard models but produce more thorough reasoning.

Processing capacity (GPT-o3 & Grok 4): Approximately 20-30 hours of meeting recordings, or 150-200 individual meeting transcripts.

Best for: Strategic planning, complex competitive analysis, intricate customer situation assessments, detailed coaching recommendations.

For Massive Context: Grok 4 Fast or Gemini 2.5 Pro

When you're working with enormous amounts of information, these models handle the load.

When you need this: Quarterly business reviews, comprehensive account histories, analyzing entire customer journeys, processing years of meeting data in one workflow.

Reality check: Most workflows don't need this much capacity. Use these only when your standard model hits its limits.

For Speed With Reasoning: GPT-o4 mini or Llama 3.3 70B

These options deliver strong results with faster processing.

GPT-o4 mini offers reasoning capabilities without the extended wait times of GPT-o3.

Llama 3.3 70B is an open-source option that works well for coding, math, and multilingual tasks.

Processing capacity: Approximately 20-30 hours of meeting recordings, or 150-200 individual meeting transcripts.

Best for: Workflows needing reasoning without the performance hit, internal processes where you want faster turnaround, specialized technical analysis.

How to Choose: The Decision Framework

Ask yourself these questions in order:

1. How much information are you processing?

• Just one meeting (1 hour)? Claude 4.5 Haiku or Gemini 2.5 Flash
• 5-20 meetings (5-20 hours)? Claude 4.5 Haiku, GPT-4.1, or Gemini 2.5 Flash
• 50+ meetings or 50+ hours of data? Grok 4 Fast or Gemini 2.5 Pro

2. How complex is the analysis?

• Straightforward summary or extraction? Use the fastest option
• Nuanced analysis or multiple perspectives? Claude 4.5 Sonnet or GPT-4.1
• Deep reasoning or strategic thinking? Claude 4.5 Sonnet, GPT-o3, or Grok 4

3. What's your priority?

• Speed: Gemini 2.5 Flash or Claude 4.5 Haiku
• Quality: Claude 4.5 Sonnet or GPT-o3
• Volume of data: Grok 4 Fast or Gemini 2.5 Pro
• Reasoning power: GPT-o3, Grok 4, or GPT-o4 mini

Real Workflow Examples

Example 1: Daily Sales Call Summaries

Model: Claude 4.5 Haiku

Why: Fast, handles writing and summary tasks well. Processes 1-2 hour calls with quick turnaround. Runs multiple times daily.

Example 2: Quarterly Customer Health Assessment

Model: Claude 4.5 Sonnet or GPT-o3

Why: Requires deep analysis across multiple data points. Can process 20-30 hours of customer interactions. Quality of insights is the priority.

Example 3: Processing 100 Past Meetings for a Strategic Account Review

Model: Grok 4 Fast or Gemini 2.5 Pro

Why: Can process 100+ hours of meetings or 1,000+ transcripts. Standard models would hit their limits. These handle the volume while maintaining quality.

Example 4: Extracting Pricing Details from 20 Recorded Calls

Model: GPT-4.1

Why: Analytical strength in parsing precise financial details. Can process 20 hours of recordings. Better at numbers than general-purpose models.

Settings That Matter

Once you've chosen a model, two additional settings shape your results:

Temperature: Controls how creative or consistent the output is. Lower temperatures (closer to 0) produce more consistent, predictable results. Higher temperatures (closer to 1) produce more varied, creative responses.

• For summaries and extraction: Use lower temperature
• For brainstorming or creative writing: Use higher temperature

Max Steps: Determines how thoroughly the model analyzes before stopping.

• More steps = deeper analysis but slower results
• Fewer steps = faster results but potentially less thorough

Most workflows use default settings. Adjust only if you notice results are consistently too brief or too verbose.

Start Simple, Optimize Later

Your first instinct should always be Claude 4.5 Haiku. Run your workflow. Check the results. If they're solid, you're done.

Only switch to a more specialized model if you notice specific problems:

• Results are too shallow? Try Claude 4.5 Sonnet.
• Can't process all your data? Try Grok 4 Fast.
• Need analytical precision? Try GPT-4.1.
• Need deep reasoning? Try GPT-o3 or Grok 4.

You can always change models mid-project. There's no penalty for experimenting.

Need Additional Help?

If you have questions or need further assistance, the AskElephant support team is here to help!

You can reach our support team in several ways:

• click the chat button in the bottom right corner of your screen,
• email us at support@askelephant.ai
• or use @askelephant support in your dedicated Slack channel.

We're committed to getting you the answers you need as quickly as possible.

Complete AI Model Reference Table

• Call Time Capacity is approximate based on average meeting speech rates of 120-150 words per minute. Actual capacity varies based on transcript length, formatting, and additional context included in the workflow.